


melody in foreshadow

by silkensong



Category: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Drabble Sequence, Friendship, Gen, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26061991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silkensong/pseuds/silkensong
Summary: You wake to bubbles carried on the gentle winds, and, faintly, you hear the beginning notes of a song.
Relationships: Juptile | Grovyle & Partner Pokemon & Player Character (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	melody in foreshadow

**Author's Note:**

> section numbers are for related pmd ost tracks

**04**

Time speaks to you.

It is merely a whisper at first, a few notes that drift by on the breeze. You wake to bubbles carried on the gentle winds, and, faintly, you hear the beginning notes of a song. There’s sand stuck in between your claws that you have to work out. There’s a Piplup at your side, ever present in their concern, and for all your exhaustion you feel─well. You might call it happy.

Your friend’s relic is stolen. Even though they’re a stranger, you agree to help them, because it feels _right_ and you don’t know what you’d do if you didn’t help where you could. Koffing and Zubat are pushovers, easy enough for you to defeat even as a grass-type.

When you leave the mystery dungeon, you find yourself sitting at the beach again. Time whispers something in your ears; seafoam sticks to your paws, makes your paws wet and uncomfortable to lean on. You pop a bubble. The melody begins anew, and somewhere within yourself, you know you’ve heard it before.

The Piplup introduces herself as Aitha, calling herself something of a coward. From what you’ve seen, she’s braver than you could ever be.

**023**

Not much is known of your abilities. To outsiders, you look just like a normal Treecko, but you know the difference. Aitha knows the difference. Something unknown lurks in your blood, and without knowing how you know that this is what causes time to speak to you in its gentle voice.

After bumping into Drowzee, you can’t shake the nervous feeling in your blood. Something high shakes the air around you, again familiar, and you know you’d seen him threatening Azurill but he seemed so kind. Two different realities rattle around in your brain.

That night you retire to bed early, trying to settle. Touching the straw feels like touching an Electrike’s fur, sends lightning-sparks over your exhausted body. Your dreams are full of dark shapes and incomprehensible words ( _keep running keep running we’re almost free_ ) and on the back of your tongue you can taste ash. Drowzee shouldn’t have been trusted, but you trusted him, and Azurill was hurt for it.

A crack of lightning splits the sky in two. You stare up at it, and do not sleep, and know that in the morning you will hunt Drowzee down.

**034**

Out of the corner of your eyes, you see something moving. It does not try to battle you, simply keeps its distance, watches as you try to navigate through the caves. The voice is fresh in your heart _stone heart cavity groudon_ but something about hearing it feels like grieving. You have not had to grieve before.

The time gear is more familiar than anything else. You want to reach out and touch it, some impossible hope rising in your chest. _Don’t_ says the voice from the dimensional scream and you trust it when it says _touching it will tear time apart._

Uxie cannot restore your memories. That’s alright, you think, because you have Aitha at your side, and in the back of your thoughts you once knew a Grovyle. Maybe you’ll see him again one day.

**061**

Time is breathing a new song.

Four note melody. Gentle accompaniment. _Remember,_ it is saying, soft and kind as ever, _there is much you have to do, and little time left. Grovyle will be here soon._

Neither of you are fit to battle him; he is far stronger than you both, and has type advantage against Aitha, but you persevere. You continue on. His attacks are vicious and constant, an assault that does not stop.

A bullet seed knocks the time gear free. Azelf dives to catch it. Grovyle freezes, leaving himself open to your slash. “Run,” he says, voice eerily still, and he stops Azelf from returning the time gear to its proper place. “Time will freeze here no matter what. Better to flee and save your life.”

There is an awful grinding sound─

the world turns gray as you watch, but none of you are caught in it. You will not shake the sight of the Absol’s frozen face for a long, long time.

**066/068**

It is cold. The wind howls, but Dialga’s roar is louder. The brick of the tower is beginning to crack apart. Your muscles are heavy, your every movement sluggish. Time’s voice has been drowned out by the wind, but you know its song well, now; it has long become a part of you.

_I’ll see you when this is all over,_ Grovyle had said, pushing Dusknoir into the portal. It had been a promise.

_When this is over._

Aitha is still braver than you. She is ready to fight time itself for the sake of the world, for her friends, for her family. You know she can succeed alone. You will not leave her behind─no, you will not be left behind.

This battle will be your last.

You want to watch the sun rise before you go. Perhaps Grovyle is watching it too.

**072**

“I’m glad… I got to be your friend, Aitha. You have to stay brave, okay?”

**04**

You wake up on the beach. Bubbles drift by overhead─it is a warm day, and the tide is far out, and the sand beneath you is warm and dry. You are alive. There is a familiar song somewhere in the distance. 

You get up. Grovyle is beside you, and Aitha─and Aitha is smiling, even though you left her behind.

How could you ever think of leaving her alone?

**Author's Note:**

> when i first played eos i didn't have volume on at all. so i did my first full playthrough with the sound on, and the music oh my god arata iiyoshi did such a wonderful job!! i love it!!


End file.
